As the stakes season inches closer, everyone is asking what’s the game plan for harness racing’s brightest stars?
While Canada’s reigning Two-Year-Old Trotting Colt of the Year The Game Plan's season hasn't been mapped out quite yet, he's about to get the ball rolling.
“He’s trained back beautifully,” said Milton trainer John Kopas, who co-owns with Anthony Wagner and the LLK Stable of Mississauga, along with Gary Grieve of Union. “He had a great winter and he grew quite a bit; I suppose he’s probably close to 17 hands now and he’s filled out considerably. Everything seems to be in order.”
The Game Plan won eight of his 13 races last year as a freshman while banking close to a half-million dollars in purses. Along with topping the point standings in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, he also won the William Wellwood Memorial Trot.
“I knew all along he was a nice colt, but about a year ago now I thought boy I’ve got something pretty special,” noted Kopas.
The short-term plan for The Game Plan is to get in a pair of qualifiers pre-season with a stop at Flamboro Downs for some practise on a half-mile track.
“We’re going to take him to Flamboro once just to show him the half-mile track,” explained the veteran conditioner. “He’s never been on one and I don’t think it will be an issue, but it still wouldn’t hurt to go over and spin him around there once.”
The Kadabra-Image Control gelding is being pointed towards the first Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event of the season at Western Fair District's half-mile oval, which gets underway on May 18 with eliminations.
“[Super Final champion] Prestidigitator looks like a top colt and there are few others around,” said Kopas assessing his competition. “Jeff Gillis had a colt that [Marvin] Katz and [Al] Libfeld owned. It looked like a pretty good horse, but apparently [got sore]. And every year there’s something that comes up that nobody's heard of the year before.”
(With quotes from WEG)